New Vietnam fund by HLG to ride on robust Vietnam growth
Kuala Lumpur, March 31- HLG Unit Trust Bhd (HLG UT) officially launched its latest fund, the Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund, at a media ceremony here today. This new Fund was made available to investors from 23 March 2010, with its Initial Offer Period starting 23 March 2010 and ending 12 April 2010. The Fund is designed to leverage on the rapid growth of the Vietnam market. The new Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund, which is a retail fund, follows in the footsteps of HLG’s earlier Vietnam-focused fund, the HLG Vietnam Fund which was a wholesale fund tailored for Qualified Investors.
“We are delighted to continue to extend this investment opportunity of investing in Vietnam to our retail investors through our new Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund,” said Mr Geoffrey Ng, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of HLG Asset Management Sdn Bhd.
The new Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund is a growth fund with a dynamic asset allocation. As such, the Fund will invest predominantly in listed equities and equities related securities of companies in Vietnam and up to 10% of the Fund’s NAV in unlisted companies in Vietnam. At the same time, the Fund will also have the flexibility of allocating up to 100% in fixed income investments in Malaysia to strive for capital stability during adverse equity markets.
“The new Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund is appropriate for investors who are seeking to participate in the growth of Vietnam’s economy as the Fund is structured to seek long-term growth of capital from growth in the country’s economy. To achieve its investment objective, the Fund will invest predominantly in listed equity and equity-related securities,” said Ng.
Equity securities are predominantly in the form of listed companies in Vietnam. The equities related securities are in the form including but not limited to Vietnam equities participation notes issued by investment banks, irredeemable convertible loan stocks and Vietnam ETF.
“The Fund may invest in companies across a broad range of industries or sectors, which includes but is not limited to banking and financials, consumer, health care, energy, materials and resources, industrials, real estate, telecommunications and utilities,” continued Ng.
This new Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund, targeted at retail investors, was created two years after HLG debuted another Vietnam fund for wholesale investors, the HLG Vietnam Fund. The HLG Vietnam Fund was designed as an investment avenue for Qualified Investors to leverage on the rapid growth of the Vietnam market. The HLG Vietnam Fund, open to individuals whose total net personal assets exceed RM3 million or a corporation with total net assets exceeding RM10 million, has a minimum initial and additional investment amount of RM50,000.
“We are delighted to be able to provide this investment prospect to a larger base of the investing public. This is because the Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund was conceptualised and developed specifically to offer retail investors access into the long-term growth prospects of the Vietnamese market. The minimum initial investment amount for the new Fund has been set at RM1,000 and the minimum additional amount at RM100, to enable the general public to invest as well,” Ng added.
HLG Asset Management Sdn Bhd (HLGAM) has been appointed as the External Investment Manager for the Fund. As such, HLGAM will be responsible for managing the Fund’s investments in equities and fixed income investments. Vietnam Asset Management Ltd (VAM) has also been appointed as the offshore investment advisor for the new Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund. With this role, Vietnam Asset Management will be advising HLGAM on the Fund’s investments in Vietnamese equity markets. VAM is also the External Foreign Investment Manager of HLG’s other Vietnamese fund, the HLG Vietnam Fund. “We are pleased to once again collaborate with Vietnam Asset Management for this new Fund. With VAM’s on-the-ground expertise, the Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund would be able to leverage on their internationally experienced investment and advisory team which is equipped with in-depth local knowledge. This too, will eventually benefit our investors,” said Ng. Vietnam Asset Management is a fund management company primarily engaged in public and private equity investment and advisory services in Vietnam. As of December 2009, VAM’s total asset under management stood at US$45.7 million.
The asset allocation for the Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund would be a maximum of 98% in equity securities and between 2% to 100% in fixed income securities. The performance of the Fund is benchmarked against the Vietnam (Capital Return) Index. The Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund has a total approved fund size of 1 billion units priced at RM 0.10 per unit during the initial offer period.
“The new fund will play an important role in positioning HLG Unit Trust Bhd as an innovative unit trust provider offering differentiated investment solutions to the Malaysian public,” Ng continued. The inclusion of the Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund increases HLG Unit Trust’s portfolio of managed funds to 37. Other funds currently managed are from a diverse range of products that include a selection of Islamic Shariah-compliant unit trusts, growth funds, equity funds, balanced funds, sectoral funds as well as bond funds.
Hong Leong Vietnam Strategic Fund is distributed through both HLG Unit Trust Bhd’s agency force and through Hong Leong Bank Bhd.
About HLG Unit Trust Bhd
Incorporated on October 5 1994, HLG Unit Trust Bhd is an established unit trust management company, and a member of the Hong Leong Group. Its core business is the management of unit trust funds.
The company manages 37 (including the new fund launched today) unit trust funds to date, which are distributed nationwide through multiple channels. Direct and channel distribution activities are supported by the HLG Unit Trust Bhd’s strategic nationwide sales support infrastructure. This includes our headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and six sales support offices nationwide in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.
As at 28 February 2010, HLG Unit Trust Bhd has a combined total fund size of RM 3.22 billion.